Who is Jonathan Irons, Missouri man freed from prison with help from WNBA superstar?

Mike Stunson
·3 min read

A Missouri man was freed from prison Wednesday with help from an WNBA superstar.

So who is Jonathan Irons, an O’Fallon man who served nearly half of a 50-year prison sentence that was later overturned?

Irons was 16 years old when he was tried as an adult in 1998 after a woman was robbed, shot and assaulted in her St. Charles County home, according to KSDK. According to testimony, Irons, now 40, said he was in the neighborhood the night of the assault carrying a .38-caliber gun — the female victim, who survived, was shot with a .25-caliber gun, according to ESPN.

Neither his DNA nor fingerprints were found at the scene, and the gun was never recovered, ESPN reported. A police officer said Irons admitted “he had broken into (the victim’s) house but could not remember anything else because he had been drunk” — but the alleged confession was not recorded and Irons denied it was accurate, per The New York Times. That officer has since died, KSDK reported.

Despite claiming his innocence, Irons was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to five decades behind bars, KMOV reported.

He was in prison at the Jefferson City Correctional Center for more than 20 years until WNBA superstar Maya Moore paused her career at the height of its peak to focus on criminal justice reform, according to Sports Illustrated.

Moore, who grew up in Jefferson City, made it her mission to free Irons from prison. She met Irons through prison ministry, The New York Times reported.

“How in the world did a 16-year-old get a 50-year sentence for a nonfatal robbery?” she asked the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

His case was brought back to court in March, when a judge cited “the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence (and) a fingerprint from the scene that didn’t belong to either Irons or the victim,” the Post-Dispatch reported. The judge threw out the conviction.

The state’s attorney general’s office tried to appeal the decision — which was unsuccessful — and the lead prosecutor in the county where the crime took place chose against a retrial, the New York Times reported.

KSDK reported the prosecutor’s reasoning for not retrying the case included:

  • “a lack of DNA evidence”

  • “the fact that Irons’ alleged confession to O’Fallon detectives when he was 16 years old was not witnessed or recorded”

  • “Witnesses put Irons in the neighborhood, but not at the crime scene”

  • “No evidence linked Irons to the weapon”

  • “Fingerprint evidence did not prove helpful in determining Irons’ guilt or innocence,” according to the TV station.

Moore, a former UConn star and four-time WNBA champion with the Minnesota Lynx, was at the prison Wednesday when Irons was released.

In an Instagram video with the caption “FREEDOM,” Moore showed the moments Irons walked out a free man.

“I feel like I can live my life now,” Irons said Wednesday in a video posted on Instagram by Moore. “I’m free, I’m blessed, I just want to live my life worthy of God’s help and influence ... I thank everybody who supported me — Maya and her family.”